Another Republican Calling It Quits--Jim Walsh (NY-25) To Retire
By Nicole Belle Wednesday Jan 23, 2008 2:58pm
The Post Standard (Syracuse):
Rep. Jim Walsh said today he plans to retire from Congress at the end of his term in January 2009, ending a 20-year career in the House of Representatives.
"It's time to go," Walsh said in an interview this morning with The Post-Standard.[..]
Walsh had grown increasingly weary of attacks on his stand on the Iraq war, which almost cost him a re-election bid in 2006. He defeated Democrat Dan Maffei, of DeWitt, by about 3,400 votes. It was the closest election of Walsh's career.
After returning to Congress last year, Walsh opposed President Bush's troop surge in Iraq and later decided that he would support efforts for a gradual withdrawal of U.S. troops.
Walsh just narrowly held on to his seat in the last election. This sets up Democrat (and Blue America candidate) Dan Maffei very nicely. Howie has more...
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now if we could just get Pelosi and Reid to grow spines today might be a good day!!!!
Remember this?
Act on this!!!!
Gee, when the Republicans were in power, or making a lot of noise, they were all set to take over Congress for the foreseeable future.
Now that their plans for that are only pipe dreams, and all of their programs are proving to be disasters, they want to quit.
Of course they'll be complaining as much as possible when the Democrats are trying to straighten out their mess.
Even if Democrats had a 435-0 majority in the House, Pelosi would STILL sit on her hands.
marko @ 1:
I do remember that but thanks for the link. It just goes to show you that the system is working as designed (successfully weeding out the non-corporation friendly candidates).
20 years? 20 years? WOW.......it should be against the law to run for more than 2 terms
The Democrats (Pelosi, Reid, etc...) better get their shit together because it appears they are going to have significant majorities in both houses and the presidency. It will not matter that it was all originally the Republicans fault; if the Dems are not able to fix what needs to be fixed in the next four years it will be 1980 all over again and the swing to the Republicans will begin again in 2012.
ConcernedCanuck @ 5:
That also punishes the true statesmen and the ones that actually try to make this country better (Bernie Sanders, VT).
Political parties should be more proactive to get the bums out that shouldn't be there.
Here's more!!!
Well, Well, Well. Another one? You think all the Repukes would call it quits. Lord knows it could only mean the best thing for this country.
As the repubs hear that the wh emails may see the light of day they seem to be running for the hills!
I believe this admin has been blackmailing all the congressmen and senators, remember Condi and Bolton having "sit downs" with moderates trying to force them to vote for Bolton. If a repub came out and said, this is what GW has on me, It was stupid on my part...." I think i could consider forgiving that person that crime.
While I'm glad to see almost any Republican retire from what I've read about Walsh on wikipedia he's doesn't seem to have been a bad guy.
"Walsh had grown increasingly weary of attacks on his stand on the Iraq war"
Poor princess. He helps send thousands of Americans off to their deaths but he's "weary" of being held accountable for it.
Maybe a Blue Dog Democrat that loves the war will take his place?
marko @ 8:
thanks for those marko...
when the new corporate-approved president is inaugurated, i'll think back on just what could've been had dennis kucinich, the only candidate with leadership, integrity, credibility, and courage, been elected.
*sigh*
well...
"Dennis Kucinich is dropping out of the race for the Democratic presidential nomination"
hope... where are you?
Weaseldog @ 13:
He seems to have been a moderate so a moderate anti-Iraq war Democrat could get elected.
Woo Hoo SYRACUSE in da HOUSE!
with bush leaving office in 2009 (hopefully) the gop bastards are jumping ship
because there will be no one to protect them from investigation of their
illegal shenanigans.
Samson- @ 14:
And if the 2000 election hadn't been stolen we'd be ending 8 years of a GORE presidency. Unfortunately we'll never know how good things could have been.
Dan Maffei was running against him last time and didn't lose by much. People in that district really didn't like Walsh at all toward the end. He sided with Bush on almost all of his votes. Being upstate New York, it tends to be a bit conservative, but still plenty of liberals there. Maffei probably has a great shot again. He's against the war, maybe not as liberal as we all might like, but definitely better than Walsh and from what I remember, really seemed to want to hold Bush accountable...
another one bites the dust. :)
There will be more....Repub congressional sheep who now feel powerless, and whom history will judge harshly. Now if the Dems continue to do little or nothing maybe a third party with integrity AND guts will surface. Of course then we'll have to wait until power corrupts them too---absolutely!
One guy whose name might come up as a successor: Tim Green a Syracuse native, SU football/NFL great, bestselling fiction and nonfiction author.
Last year he also switched his affiliation from Republican to Democrat.
K Street calling.
Translation: "I've got a good job offer with one of the countless entities on whose behalf I have been prostiting this office for the last 20 years. See ya later, suckers!"
OOOh, a democrat, set up very nicely! Nice.
You idiots need to start getting nasty. Democrats. What the fuck are they? Republicans under a different banner. I mean, what the fuck are they doing for you? Its not a change of party you need over there. Its a new way of doing things. A revolution, and nothing short.
Good luck with that....
Yea this is so great the Dem's will have complete control of our Gov't just as the the shit hits the fan. Then every CON on the planet will be screaming about the Dem Depression of 2010 for the next 50 years, oh happy day. Wake up already.
Wait'll the rest of the republicans get the word that MoveOn is starting a web drive to secure enough money to buy Diebold.
They'll be fleeing D.C. as if they'd all caught the clap from each other.
Let's see what a few years of one-party, Dem-rule does for the USA.
Stay the CORPSE repukes
and loose big like 2006
ha h ah ah ah a
election night '06 i sent Walsh an email reading "Na-na na na na-na na na hey hey, good-bye" i thought we had Maffei over the top. Seems Jimmy realized i'd have it right this year.
Another day, another rat leaving the
scowlgood ship Bush Administration. Please Cheney, please be a nice rat...While I never voted for Walsh, he served our area resonably well and never came across as bat-guano crazy/stupid which seems to chic for the Republicans recently.
While I'm happy to see him go, I don't think he is deserving of some of the ridicule some people here are throwing his way.
Shocker! I thought his about face on Iraq was a guarantee that he would seek reelection. He is a true pragmatist or he just saw his latest internals, turned ashen, and is going to seek higher ground.
God damn it, I just started to harrass that mother fucker as his new constituent and he is leaving?
Put a black moustache and a military uniform on this guy and suddenly he's a dead ringer for ...
Republicans are so transparent. When they are in charge and can shut off all dissent, everything is fine. When they become the minority and can't always get their way, they immediately quit. What better example of putting your party before your country can you possibly find?
I hope they all quit. The ones that don't, we can vote out in November. Good riddance to bad rubbish!
The mainstream explanation for all the republicon retirements is that they know they are going to lose re-election thanks to Bush's failed policies, so they are retiring while still in office.
Here is my alternate paranoid explanation. They know that the neocons have a nasty surprise in store for the new US congress (a la 9/11) in order to solidify their dictatorship, and the republicons in the know don't want to be collateral damage.
eric @ 35:
Unh-unh, Godwin's principle...
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